PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs minced no words on Friday when she said that she will not participate in a proposed Mullet Bay master plan and believes the property should instead be put on the market for sale, with the proceeds going toward the ENNIA resolution fund.
Gumbs made the firm statement during The Breakfast Lounge with Lady Grace on Friday while discussing Mullet Bay and the ENNIA resolution.
Gumbs said Sun Resorts approached her last year about whether she and the Government of St. Maarten would participate in discussions about a possible master plan for Mullet Bay.
She said she rejected the proposal because she believes participating in such discussions could undermine St. Maarten’s first right of refusal when the property goes up for sale.
Gumbs said the objective should be straightforward: establish the boundaries, put Mullet Bay on the market and allow St. Maarten to determine whether it can and should exercise its first right of refusal.
She also questioned who would pay for the proposed master plan, saying she had asked the resolution fund about the matter but had not yet received an answer.
Gumbs said she does not see a need for the master plan and is not entertaining the proposal.
She maintained that selling Mullet Bay would allow the proceeds to go into the resolution fund and help reduce the cost of the ENNIA resolution for the countries involved.
She said there is Cg.3 million in the budget toward the overall ENNIA resolution and addressed questions surrounding the ownership and possible sale of Mullet Bay.
Gumbs said that, based on the information presented to her, Mullet Bay is owned by Sun Resorts. She stressed that she considers the property not to have been sold and said questions remain about who would have sold it, when it would have been sold and who would have bought it if there were claims that it had already been sold.
She said the next step is to establish the boundaries of Mullet Bay. After that, she said, the property should be sold in accordance with what she said was agreed upon in the ENNIA Accord.
Gumbs said one of her concerns when she became Finance Minister in 2024 was the original ENNIA agreement. She said she questioned why St. Maarten would be paying for pension holders in the BES islands and Suriname and said she wanted that removed. She also questioned why Mullet Bay was not mentioned in the agreement at the time and said she wanted St. Maarten to have first right of refusal if the property were sold.
“I just want to know if it is known that Mullet Bay is sold then who sold it when was it sold and who bought it I need those questions answered.”
